Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Cute Cleanse

The Birdchick often posts something cute after a posting on unpleasant topics, so here we go with our "cute cleanse" to balance out my rant below.

We ARE really lucky to have a very cute Bean who is great at...


Smiling! (best caught from the side, as he frowns at the camera)

and



Snoozing! (all through his first "legal" boat ride at my parent's cabin, outfitted with an infant lifejacket checked out from the local library; a great program!)

Power Lament

My public service message for today:

Have you ever considered living “off the grid”? Before you make the leap (or tell me how lucky I am) please consider the whole lifestyle picture. Are you raising a small child? Working outside the home? Pumping mama-milk to store for later? Suspecting that you have an excess of a certain enzyme that makes milk go sour soon? Frustrated with a freezer that can’t store much or freeze very cold?

Then, by gosh, DON’T DO IT! Stay connected to that massive grid, hold tight to your power cord, for now. Yes, I appreciate that we get most of our energy from the sun, but I am ruing the day that WF made this decision (before my time here). Mostly because of the freezer situation, again. A Sunfrost refrigerator is a lovely investment in efficiency, but in practice, the thing is damp, tiny and not very cold. Fine for single ascetics, not so great for moms trying to work and pump and store milk safely for the baby.

Granted, I am also likely dealing with an enzyme issue that the freezer can’t help, but I HATE pouring out the hard-won human milk that has become foul-tasting in our lovely fridge/freezer.

In a perfect world (or at least my current view of perfect, ha), I wouldn’t be away from Bean so much and therefore wouldn’t need to pump and fret about storage for later. I’m struggling with the separation, no matter what our silly electricity situation may be. It’s so hard to stay motivated at “work” when it feels like there are more important things to be doing in my own life. Sigh…

And I’ll admit that the solar panels ARE appreciated and entertaining sometimes, and WF had no way of knowing that this would be our current life situation way back when he made these decisions. Just trying to get up the oomph and sort out logistics to make some changes to our life SOON, one way or another.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Dual Purpose

We have lots of new "stuff" in our house due to Baby-bean. I've tried to keep it under control, but I swear, the onsies are multiplying in the drawers!

But luckily, much of this stuff is dual purpose.

By day, a baby "gym" for entertainment...


And by night, a comfy cat location for relaxing!




Of course... Lutsen thinks this new campaign to give her ever-more comfy spots to sleep is great; all cats should consider getting one of these baby things (and their accompanying stuff) in their own homes!

In other news, my parents came up for another fun visit; Bean was full of smiles, but pretty much refuses to smile for the camera. He's taking after his dad in that. But he did get lots of fun "Grandma school"! Too busy for photos...

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Big Boy



So I was noticing that some clothes were getting rather tight on this not-so-little bean of ours... Confirmation came during the 2 month checkup last week.

15 lbs, in the 95th percentile for all measurements! I have been called the Diary Queen... sole source of nourishment. So, why haven't I lost those pounds myself? Ha.


The camera always adds 10lbs, right?

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Back to "work"

Yesterday's numbers:

Emails deleted: 711
Ounces of milk pumped: 15
Hours away from the Bean: 8

I didn't get paid to do the second thing, but somehow it's the one that felt the most important.

Bean did OK in his second day of daycare (we did a half-day test run last week so I could get the tears out of my system then, not at work). We've found a wonderful place run by a woman who shares many of our same ideals regarding cloth diapers and babywearing, but it's still hard. And Bean is not the only baby there...

I'm trying to stay extra busy to make these hours away worthwhile, but argh. Yesterday, all I could do when we got home was eat, nurse and sleep. Zzzzzzz.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Independence


Someone is learning to hold his head up! For a few minutes, anyway!

Just a little bit of independence. All the better to see and play with his cousins, visiting for the 4th all the way from Boston. Lots of family connections this weekend.

Happy Independence (and Interconnections) Day!